Comments on: Charity Choice

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:21:02 +0000

My grandmother told me a very instructive story about charity when I was a child: During the late 1930's before marrying my grandfather, she was a working girl and supporting herself during the Depression. One weekend she managed to scrape a few extra pennies together and decided to go to see a movie to take her mind off her troubles. As she was walking to the theater, a man approached her and asked if she had any money to spare because he had not eaten in several days. Grandmama decided he must be even more down on his luck than she was, so she handed him her movie ticket money, and he departed. She walked down the street window shopping and in a few minutes reached the theater where she had planned to attend the movie. There in line at the ticket window was the very same "hungry" bum to whom she had just given her movie money! The Victorians were correct to draw a distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:36:54 +0000

Stunned.

That was my reaction a few years ago as I approached a Goodwill drop location after dark. It was an unattended trailer at the end of a strip center in an affluent area of town. The parking lot lights were out. As I approached the trailer in my car I noticed about six or seven figures milling around in the shadows. It was not until the car’s headlights illuminated the scene that I realized what was happening.

The figures were Hispanics.

They were looting the donations that had been left out as the location was closed.

I no longer give to charity because of this.

I give directly to those in need.

By: lewis

lewis — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 03:50:17 +0000

I too am tired of getting ripped off by those that would take advantage of me. We all need to do some due diligence before we give our money to so-called charities. On my blog I wrote about being taken for a sucker by a company sponsored adopt-a-family program. Social Services assured us that the families were “truly needy.”

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:24:47 +0000

The trouble is that in order to have low overhead, a soup kitchen needs to hand the chowder to all comers whether poor deserving citizens or Bill Gates or non citizens… – wholesale large scale ripoffs, of course, are not excusable. If the charity has high overhead, then they become quasi-governmental and waste most of their money that way. Speaking of ripoffs, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (which I had already heard bad news about) put a lot of its money into the dubious private hedge/derivative funds of Bernie Madoff instead of spending it on charity – well, I know who NOT to give to! As far as charities go, the Salvation Army seems one of the better ones. If Pepe the Wetback or Warren Buffett get an “unauthorized” free doughnut, so be it.